Happy Happy Happy :)

Good week! ️ Life is good out here in New York! 

Highlights

Thursday we did our weekly planning, it takes FOREVER and it's not normally something I look extremely forward to But this week it was awesome! Something we try very hard to do is get members to come to lessons with us, and it is really hard to coordinate schedules so it doesn't happen very often *tear*, but as we sat down to do weekly planning the ideas just kept coming to us! We thought of so many people that we could take to lessons with us and the schedules worked out great! It just showed me that God is in charge of this work and if we keep doing what He asks then He is going to bless us and help us to accomplish it!🏻

Also on Thursday we had sports night! ️ We have it every Thursday at the church and it is a really fun thing we can invite investigators to to have them meet members and stuff! It just started a few weeks ago... And the Elders have more luck inviting people so we are normally there so a bunch of people speaking Spanish who are REALLY good at playing soccer! But this week... It was the same, but I had a different attitude:) I actually tried to enjoy playing soccer, and it worked! It was so fun and it was cool just getting to know these people more! 

The Wright family is awesome! We had a dinner appointment with them on Friday and it was sweet! Their house was built in like the 1600s, no big deal it was just the cutest house you will ever see!:) But what made it so amazing was just the Spirit that was there, this family loves each other so much and it really allows the Spirit to dwell in their home:) 

Sunday I got a package from my wonderful family and it was like Christmas! Especially the giant banner:) I love all you guys so much and I miss ya like crazy! 

Sunday was also fun because we had a dinner appointment with the Huling family and we found out about 5 minutes before that their non member friends would be there, so we had an impromptu member present lesson!  It was very out of my comfort zone haha but it was cool because we had already planned to teach the family about how we can gain stronger testimonies, so it worked out kind of perfectly! I think it is amazing how the Lord can prepare us for these things without us even realizing it!

Monday we helped the Rawlings pack up to move!  They are a couple in our Ward with an itty bitty baby boy and they are so amazing! One of the best parts about helping them though was that they let us take out their trash as we were leaving... We always offer to take out people's trash and they always laugh and say no. Weird thing to get excited about haha! But after 3 months of offering to take out people's trash, someone finally let us!!;🏼

And Tuesday. We had a member present lesson! Sister Iglesia came with us to a lesson with the Dzuban's, and I know that doesn't mean anything to you guys because you don't know who they are! But it was amazing for us to see:) It actually wasn't a member present lesson, it was a missionary present lesson! Sister Iglesia was on fire  and she taught the whole lesson, the Spirit was definitely there and it was such a special experience for me to be able to see why the thought came to Sister Kovac and I to bring Sister Iglesia to this lesson! Inspiration is real!!

So, that was my week this week:) And I had the best realization this week too. I love this Ward. ️ I have been viewing this Ward as temporary, just a place where I am working until I get moved. But I realized that I really do love the members here and if for some reason I spent my whole year and a half here, I wouldn't be upset! I know the Lord has me here for a reason and I love it!

I love you all! Keep praying:) God is there!

Love, Sister Jones ️

Love my family!

Ye have done it unto Him

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25:40)

Isn't that so cool!? I learned a lot about service this week and there are a bunch of thoughts about how awesome it is swimming through my brain, so let's see what swims its way out But I just feel so lucky that God trusts me to serve His children, He trusts all of us to serve His children! And as we do we are serving God!!

Sister Kovac and I had a little experiment while we were tracking one day and it turned out to be a miracle! When someone answers the door you can tell in a couple of seconds whether they are going to listen or shut the door in your face... So, with the latter we decided just to offer service. Holy cow it was amazing!! People who would've never talked to us were all of a sudden smiling and being super nice.

One of the best things that happened to me this week had to do with service. We were tracting (like usual:)) and we knock on this door and no one answers, so we leave a card and start walking away. But then the door starts to open so we book it back to the door and this guy wearing a cross is standing there. So I was about to start saying that we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ (because I have really awesome observation skills and thought he might appreciate it based on what he was wearing haha!) but that's not really what came out of my mouth... I hear myself saying that we are just going around and offering service, and at the same time I'm thinking in my brain, "what??" But the way he reacted when I said that was the coolest thing! He told us about how his wife had been hit by a car a few years ago and has had wrist problems ever since and then she just found out she has tendinitis and they have been looking for people to help her out with things she can't do anymore! We feel like we may have been an answer to someone's prayers! It is the coolest feeling:)

It is such a blessing to be able to serve people out here in New York!️

Love you all!

Love, Sister Jones

P.S. Sister Kovac and I are stickin' together for another cycle, it's cool

This place has the best ice cream!!

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Life's Good! :)

Hello everybody!

I don't have a lot of time to write an update today:( But I am still loving it!

We are still in the mid to high 80s and 90s, plus humidity:P I won't be upset when fall finally rolls around! But I have liked the start of school, people are coming back from vacations and a lot of people that we haven't been able to meet with all summer are finally starting to be available again! 

I thought you might like to know that Frenchy is still doing really well! She is still planning on being baptized the 16th, but we are thinking more the 20th or the 29th but I am really hopeful!!:)

This is a picture of our district. We played nerf wars in Connecticut again.  It is becoming a regular event & we have a blast!

 Transfers are coming up next week so I might get me a new companion! I will miss Sister Kovac if it happens:( But I am excited to see what the Lord wants me to do next!!

Thank you all for your letters and emails this week!

I love you all and I will have a better update next week!!

The church is true:)

Love, Sister Jones

This is my little friend

I found on the ground! :)

District Nerf Wars!

Sing Sing Prison

Greetings:)

Ok first of all, it is important that I inform all of you that Himalayan food is, in fact, delicious:) I know you all have been in suspense about that since last week!

Anyway, we had fun this week! I swear I love my mission more and more every week! I have probably said it before but I will say it again... It is so worth it. Anybody who is wondering whether they should go on a mission: DO IT! Well first you should pray about it and see if that is what Heavenly Father wants for you... But then you should do it! That is all the advice I can give you if you are wondering whether you should serve:)

Highlights of my week:

The Book of Mormon challenge! The Relief Society President in our Ward came up with the best idea, and we got to help her with it! The sisters in our Ward are going to read the Book of Mormon in 3 months, a brand new copy. And as we read we are going to mark our favorite scriptures and things that stand out to us, and then at the end of the 3 months we are going to write our testimony in this copy. And 3 months from now is December... So we have all been challenged to pray about who we could then give this copy of the Book of Mormon to for a Christmas present! I love it, think about how many lives this could touch! The Book of Mormon really does mean so much to me, being able to read it and teach people about it everyday is the coolest thing I can think of to be doing right now! But it is something that doesn't need to be limited to a mission, the Gospel means so much more coming from someone you care about and we shouldn't be afraid to share something that means so much to us!

Dinner with the Murphy's! Last week I wrote about how amazing the Bible Videos are, that still stands!! Sister Murphy's husband is not a member of the church and doesn't stay for the lessons after dinner when we go over. So we tried to come up with a lesson that he would be comfortable staying and listening to... It didn't work. But we taught the lesson anyway, of course:) We talked about charity and shared the Bible Video "Charity Never Faileth" and it was so cool to see how much Sister Murphy's eyes lit up and how excited she got that she could share this video with her husband! It is amazing how many tools Heavenly Father has blessed us with to help people feel the Spirit, no matter their religion! Also, it would be cool if all of you watched that video... Or read 1 Corinthians 13, it shows how important charity truly is!!

Ken and Milli! Ok so Saturday we had what is called a car fast (basically we were running out of the miles we are allowed to use in a month so we couldn't use the car...). And Ossining, New York is very hill-y! So Sister Kovac and I had a lot of fun hiking up and down hills for 7 hours!:) It was finally almost time for us to start walking back home when I turn around and realize that Sister Kovac has stopped to talk to a couple people, so I go back and start talking to them as well. It was the coolest thing, Milli accepted everything that we told her and we are going to meet with her again soon! (Ken was cool too, he is Milli's friend, and he wasn't super interested... But he gave us tomatoes from his garden and those are like my favorite!) But I loved that experience because we weren't planning on being on foot all day and we would not have met them if we wouldn't have! Also, if we left any place that we went to 5 minutes earlier, or stayed for 5 minutes more we wouldn't have met them either. It is just amazing how much the Lord really is in our lives if we look for it!:)

Frenchy! So, I wrote about Frenchy a few weeks ago and she is still doing awesome! She thought she was going to move so her baptism date didn't work out, but then they didn't move and so she has come up with another date that she is working towards! I love lessons with her because we can see the progress she is making, the Gospel has made her a different person from when I first met her:) She has been investigating for so long and I feel so blessed that I get to be a part of her coming unto Christ and that I have been able to watch the power the Atonement has in people's lives!

 So that is just some of my favorite things from this week! I can't tell you guys how much I love it here:) It is hard, I knew it would be! But it really is worth it and I feel so lucky:) Thank you all for being so awesome and supportive! Have a good week and don't forget prayer and scripture study! They seem like such simple things to do but the difference they make is real!

God loves you! 

 I love you!! 

Sister Jones

Bonus: I was studying this morning in 2 Nephi 33 and I came across a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon in verse 10. "And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good." A belief in Christ = a belief in the Book of Mormon. It's so simple and so true. I have a testimony of the Savior and what He has done for me and I also have a testimony of the Book of Mormon- I know that it is the word of God and I have seen how it has blessed my life and the lives of those around me:)